Guillermo del Toro has done it again, making another beautiful and abstract movie for all adult movie goers. Del Toro’s previous films include 2004’s Hellboy, 2006’s Pans Labyrinth, and most recently 2013’s Pacific Rim. Now, he astonishes fans again with his new feature film, The Shape Of Water.

The Shape Of Water is set in the 1960’s where we follow Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a mute Janitorial women working at a top-secret research facility with her cleaning partner Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer). As Elisa and Zelda make their rounds, they start to clean one of the research labs when in a tank, they discover the Amphibian Man (Doug Jones). Elisa is very interested in the Amphibian Man and starts to talk to her neighbor, the aspireing artist Giles (Richard Jenkins), about how they are communicating. But, at the same time, the head of research Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) is fulfilling his necessary duties and torturing the creature for signs of responsive communication. Now Elisa is trying to save Amphibian Man from Mr. Strickland so that they can live happily together.

A visually pleasing movie, The Shape Of Water does well with sticking to the theme of 1960’s—from the classic movie theater sign to the soap dispensers in the bathrooms. The color scheme used throughout the movie is so simple and calming that it makes the whole movie gel nicely.

The movie’s soundtrack also fits well with the era and feel of the movie, evoking strong emotions throughout the film. Each character from the movie plays an important role to continue the story, and each character has a loveable quirk that almost all people can relate to. The look of the Amphibian Man is amazing and so life-like that you can’t make out if it’s a costume, computer animated, or even both.

Although The Shape of Water is slightly unoriginal in its plot, it is a beautiful love story for today’s modern age.

     4 out of 5 Spurs.